Rise From the Dusk, Bleeding Moon: Chaos Reigns
by CynricShadowInk
Summary: first Yoru/Kisuke fic. rated M for possible lemon later on and language. slightly AU, not much tho. expect wierd update times cuz of school. Normal disclaimers: I don't own bleach or its characters, all OCs and ideas are mine however.
1. Inner Conflict

The sky was dark and alive with pinks, oranges, reds and purples tinting the clouds and giving the sky a multi-colored, semi cartoon-like quality that Urahara found extremely relaxing. Kisuke looked out from under his green and white striped hat and sighed.

He had been exiled for a very long time, nearly 25 ardous years. He should be used to it by now, right?

_'What is it going to take to get over this isolation?_', He thought to himself, '_Why can't I figure this out?_'

He was pondering on these and many other thoughts while the sun sank lower and lower into the horizon. The sinking sun took the fleeting pinks, reds, and other hues of the warm, comforting colors out of the sky and left Urahara Kisuke in the dark with only his thoughts and Benihime.

Since she wouldn't leave his conscious thoughts, Urahara closed his eyes and let his Crimson Princess lead him to his inner plane where she was the master and he, the subjugate.

* * *

"_Good evening my love._" Benihime smiled rather playfully but the hurt and seething anger gleamed dangerously in her eyes.

Kisuke was in shock, his Soul Plane had changed drastically. His normally orderly inner sanctum was trashed, the drapes of the four poster bed were in shreds all about the floor, the bedding looked as if a giant cat had gotten ahold of it and scratched at them with careless abandon. The bookcases were overturned with slips and tears in the covers and pages scattered about the place. 'Hime was pissed, and, by the look on her face, was not at all near to being finished.

Her anger seeped out of her pores, leaking a bloody mist into the air, fouling it and increasing her ethereal beauty in a grotesque way. Her green kimono was hanging off of one shoulder seductively while her heaving breaths raised and lowered her chest in a rhythm that only lowered Kisuke's already off-kilter defenses. She had gone to town on the room and the person she wanted to see most had crawled back to her.

"_That concubine bitch will regret the day she met you_..." She said in a voice that was interwoven with enough malice and hate that Urahara actually winced.

With those words, Benihime, The Crimson Princess of the East, threw down the last shred of her semblance of control and unleashed her inner self.

The effect was instantaneous, the kimono was ripped away and her true nature came to bear down on Kisuke. 'Hime exploded and brought the force of Chaos down on him. Fire, Water, Earth, soul particles, Essence itself, Air, Metal, Wood and anything else that is in the universe, both the discovered and those that were still hidden, all opposites working together in a harmony and neglecting the fact that opposites should cancel each other out, was against Kisuke. The hurricane force of power had pushed him back against the edge of the four poster bed and had caused him to fall onto the bed and watch as his zanpakuto brought herself to her full power.

She struck at him again and again, each time getting closer and closer to where his flash steps took him. Kisuke soon realized that this day had been coming for awhile but was wondering what had finally provoked his Crimson Princess to openly rebel against his love of the Shihoin Princess.

"Why are you fighting me? If I die you do too!" This served the opposite purpose that Urahara had intended it to. And, instead of calming his 'Hime, it spurred her on to an even higher plane of concentration and deadliness. The next attack was barely avoided and Kisuke had to jump quickly into another flash step before fully exiting the previous one.

"Shit!" Kisuke yelped in surprise as his question went unanswered verbally. 'Hime had not told him why they had started sparring and he was quickly becoming worried that the inner piece he had worked so hard to maintain would be forever beyond his reach if he somehow made it out of this rather precarious situation.

She pounded on his defenses mercilessly and was goaded to even higher elevations of anger when Kisuke was forced to use the Blood mist Shield.

"_I gave you this power and you use it against me?!_" Her anger had peaked and was rapidly leaving her with less and less control over herself. Realizing this, and knowing that her Kisuke had spoke the truth earlier, she reigned herself in and stared at Urahara with a cold detachment as his breathing slowed to its normal pace.

"Are you finished trying to kill us yet?" Kisuke asked. Though still wary of his first Princess he realized that she had seen the sense in his earlier words and wasn't going to attempt to kill him again. At least not in the immediate future.

"_For the moment, my Love. But one can never be too careful..._" She had put just enough malice into her voice that Kisuke blinked rapidly a few times before he had enough of his wits about him to pull together a come back to her cold detachment.


	2. Gone

The coldness in her voice made Kisuke shiver unconsciously. '_What was she so distant about?_' The thought of his Shihoin Princess flashed through his mind and he started thinking about the night they had shared last night. He couldn't stop his mind from wandering away from the near imminent danger and onto happier thoughts. He caught himself and quickly reprimanded his mind for it.

He snapped back to the matter at hand and noticed that Benihime was looking at him with the same look she had started their btattle with. The look that was so filled with hate and malice and hurt that it could have easily been anything but his soul. The normally lust-filled gaze that she had when he filled her vision was gone, and it didn't seem to be coming back anytime soon.

" 'Hime..." He sighed and looked up, meeting her cold jade green eyes with his calculating grey ones, "What is wrong?"

The question was so simple yet Urahara had no idea of the far reaching implications that this one, uncomplicated question would have.

"_Whats wrong? You cannot actually be asking that. Your audacity surprises even your soul Kisuke. That concubine bitch is what is the always the root of our problems my Love._"

The truth was out, and though she was the jealous type, much more so than any mortal woman dead or alive, she looked down in shame.

She knew that she and her love would have this conversation again and, though the answer was the same every single time, the hope that she would be the only woman in Kisuke's life still gave her butterflies in her stomach... much like those a small school-girl gets when she sees her crush from across the play yard.

"_Why must you constantly compare the two of us Kisuke my love? We are nothing alike and even though I will always love you more than she, you constantly run to her for the answers only I can give you! We are the most opposite of any two women you can find, and yet you compare the two of us like you would compare common house cats._"

"'Hime... Why must you do this to us? You know that I will never stop loving her. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't. I love her more than my own life and nothing will change that Benihime," Kisuke was on a roll and not even the whimpered accusations of being a liar from Benihime were stopping him, "not you, not her family or heritage, and nothing of this world or that of any other could tear me apart from her. It isn't even in me to mutilate my soul, and you know this place would change more drastically than anything your rage could accomplish."

Urahara congratulated himself in his mind. His amazement came to a screeching halt when her saw the beginnings of tears in the eyes of his Benihime. The Crimson Princess had never cried in front of him before, and Kisuke had thought that a human display of emotions like this, on the scale they had reached, confused and intrigued him.

So even the soul is capable of being torn down. This is heartbreak in it's purest-- He stopped mid-thought and looked away from her. If his Crimson Princess had a heart for him he could do nothing to comfort her. He would do nothing to betray his love to the person who had saved him countless times. Both from himself and from others.

His love for the Shihoin Princess was more of a curse than Kisuke would have like to admit. She caused more than anyone's fair share of strife and conflict wherever her and Kisuke went - Be it Soul Society, the Karakura township, even Kisuke's own soul wasn't untouched. This was the fourth time this week that Benihime had thrown a fit about his love for '_that whorish concubine_' that drove him mad with desire and uncontrolled passion in the bedroom and was the root of much sidetracked thoughts during his experiments.

But, despite the distractions, He loved her and nothing was going to change that. at least nothing he knew of. "'Hime..." the words caught in his throat and he realized that what his soul felt was actually only a mirror of his own roiling emotions. But why was he upset?

"'Hime, I'm sorry. I know that this isn't easy for you to hear time after time, but there is nothing to be done. I love Yoruichi and nothing is going to change that. Why can't you just accept that?"

Wrong thing to say.

Benihime's trilling laughter bounced off the walls of the bedroom that made up Kisuke's Spirit Plane, "_Why can I not just accept a fraction of the love you so willingly give to that bitch?! Oh, Kisuke you must know me better than that, or have you forgotten what exactly the price you almost paid for the power of Bankai was? I will be happy with nothing less than every last bit of your love, Kisuke._" Her eyes had gone from their costumery jade green to a deep, vibrant green that matched the leaves of newly blossomed trees in the first days of Spring, "_I gave you this power out of kindness, and I am able to take it back just as easily as you obtained it. Are you willing to give it all up for her?_"

Kisuke was so taken aback by Benihime's ultimatum that he actually thought this was his soul's twisted idea of a joke. When he realized she wasn't joking, he steadied himself and forced his gaze to meet hers. What he saw was not at all what he was expecting. Her eyes, which Kisuke had expected to hold a merciless conviction, were hopeful. She had purposefully used his power as a lure, hoping against hope that he would forsake his childhood friend for something to further himself.

She was wrong.

"Not only would I give up all my power for her, I would banish you from my body if I could." The conviction that had infused his voice surprised not only Benihime, but Kisuke himself. He knew that was the answer he would give, but it didn't seem like him talking. It was like someone had taken his body over for about 5 seconds and had all but torn his soul from his being.

"_Kisuke..._" Benihime was astonished, to say the least, when had Yoruichi meant more to him then his own soul? "_If that is how you feel..._"

"It is." Kisuke was adamant, he knew that if he didn't go completely insane when, and if, Benihime left with everything she had given him, that he would be severely depressed and might even shut down completely. He hoped that Yoruichi could save him again, much like she had done in the past.

"_Then I will go._" With these final four words Benihime left and took the last tie to Soul Society Kisuke had, leaving him alone and in the dark.


	3. Helplessly Final

An ear piercing, head splitting scream of pain and loss rent the night, and awoke the tenants of the apartment complex that was near the lot on which the Urahara Shop was built.

Kisuke's loss was tremendous, monumental, and left him feeling empty, alone, and hopeless. He was a barren person, no Soul, no reason to go on. Utterly alone in the already huge and daunting Human World he had been exiled to.

What have I done?! Kisuke's thoughts reeled at the recently abandoned part of his being, and he began to lose his mind. Pictures of what his life had been flitted through his mind at breakneck speed.

Childhood, living in a rundown house in the "wrong" part of town, sold to one family after another, found by a social worker, and taken to a real family, loved.

Adolescence, school, excelling to the top of his class, constant sneering and an ever present feeling of being hated everywhere, except at home.

Adulthood, first drink, first time of consenting sex, first feeling of happiness outside of his psuedomother's arms, loss, hurt, his death.

Rukongai, growing up all over again. A real family where nobody was related, but everyone was loved as though they were. Home, hope.

Soul Society, the Academy, Yoruichi--

His thoughts caught up and stopped here. His memories were apparently as transfixed with the royalty as he had been the first time he had seen her. She was perfect. Beautiful body, striking face, eyes betraying nothing of what was lying just beneath the surface. Emotions, roiling out beneath completely rehearsed and timed responses. Everything about her from the golden eyes to the purple hair to the grace with which she carried herself. It was perfect......She was perfect!

His thoughts raced off again and slowed at the time of each of their "study meetings". They would shut themselves away in the room of the young Shihoin Princess, and then sneak off to do "field research". They loved the stolen time and revelled in it every Saturday. It relieved the Princess of her Royal Duties, and it gave Kisuke the valuable time that he needed with the one he loved, though she didn't know it.

Off again, this time slowing at the time spent under her as fourth seat of the second squad of the Gotei 13. Hard work because nobody could find out that they loved each other. The endless meddling of the vice-captain Soi Fon, his beloved's protege.

Off to the last memory of Soul Society, his exile because of conducting forbidden research, and endangering all of Soul Society and it's inhabitants. The Senkiamon opening up and him stepping through, looking back and seeing the shimmering halo of the rising sun envelope the last sight he would ever have of the place he had lived a second life. The sight he would never forget, no matter how long he lived in exile. The sight of her longing to break free from Captain Commander Yamamoto's tight grasp. The sight of the tears rolling unchecked down her face glinting in the morning light. The love in her eyes that could never again be his because he had messed up and gotten caught doing banned research.

This thought set him off again and he let out another scream, trailing off into a soft sob only to break completely down into tears.

* * *

Ichigo had felt the sudden disappearance of Urahara's presence and rushed off to see what was wrong with old Hat'n'Clogs.

When Ichigo got to the shop he heard the sobbing and stopped dead. Is that Kisuke? Though he had never been on a first name basis with the shopkeeper, he was genuinely worried about his friend.

* * *

Kisuke felt Ichigo enter the room and looked up at the orange haired soul reaper, "Hey..." Kisuke mumbled and looked back down at his knees while reassuming the fetal position. "Damn, old man, you look like shit." With all his natural bluntness Ichigo hit the nail on the head, "Uhm, Hat'n'Clogs? Why can't I feel your spirit pressure?"

Kisuke snapped his head up and stared at Kurosaki with an intensity that made Ichigo step back, "She's gone..."

"Uhm, who's gone?" Ichigo scratched his head in confusion.

"Benihime." Kisuke got up from his spot on the floor and looked around, his eyes lingering on the various bits of started projects that were scattered throughout the workshop.

"What?!" Kurosaki was still confused. If he remembered correctly, then Benihime was the embodiment of his soul. How could she be gone?

Kisuke took a deep breath and delved into everything that had happened in the past two and a half hours...

* * *

"...and then she left, just like that. I guess I had it coming, but I never expected her to actually do it. I thought she was bluffing. I hadn't prepared for this eventuality it was completely unexpected. Then there was the empty feeling, and the memories, and the depression, and the screams and sobbing that you were so kind as to interrupt." Kisuke finished on this note and looked away from the empathetic brown eyes of the black clothed stand-in soul reaper.

"Wow..." Was all Ichigo could say. He couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like if Zangetsu or even Ogichi, his inner hollow, left. They were both an integral part of his being and losing one, or both of them would be like losing his arms, maybe more.

"Well, uhm... What can we do?" Ichigo had taken on a seemingly perpetual look of confusion and should have worn through the back of his skull with all the scratching he had done.

"We? I don't think there is any 'we' about this, Ichigo. I'm truly and sincerely sorry but this is the end. I'm no longer a soul reaper. When she left she even took the sword." With this, he pulled the handle out of his cane to show an empty housing and a forlorn looking handle of a cane, but no sword.

"But... But... You always have something up your sleeve. Nothing ever gets passed Urahara Kisuke... What the hell?!"

Ichigo's confusion was replaced with the anger and hotheaded rashness he was so prone to. "You can't give up... You never gave up on me... How can I give up on you...?" He trailed off as the entirety and finality of the situation came crashing down on him like a piano dropped from a fifty story building. His shoulders visibly sagged and his head became downcast.

"Not this time, kid... Not this time..." Kisuke turned away and walked into the back room, effectively dismissing Ichigo.

* * *

Still looking as if someone had just killed his puppy, Ichigo shot one last glance at the doorway his former mentor had disappeared into, and turned to leave.

* * *

Kisuke lay in bed and looked up and the ceiling wishing above all else that Benihime would just come back and say the test was over. He would gladly welcome even her fiercest rage if it meant this had all been a dream.

But his wish was never answered. He drifted off into a fitful sleep where there were dreams of his Princesses battling to the death. In the end it was always the same, Yoruichi stood out as the victor, but what was the price for Kisuke?


	4. His Furry Little Troublemaker

Kisuke woke up the next morning and tried to quell the fear and the empty feeling in the pit of his stomach. It took him about ten minutes but he managed to bypass the freaking out and went straight to the realization and copeing stage.

He lay in bed on his side, gazing out the window to watch the sun rise.

The sky went from the darkness before the dawn to a deep blue streaked with orange, yellow and red, to a pale blue with the first rays of sunlight streaming into the room through the open window.

The beams crept across the floor and over to the bed, slid up the overhanging blankets and bathed Kisuke in a golden light that was, essentially, the polar opposite of his mood.

Kisuke got up and proceded with his daily routine of showering, making the bed and opening the shop.

He was slowly becoming used to the abandoned feeling that wouldn't abate, but would grow increasingly apparent. It also seemed to fluctuate, becoming almost unbearable at times and disapearing completely at others.

During one of the calmer times of the day, Kisuke closed the shop and went to the back room to ponder over the absence of his soul.

His calculating mind went into overdrive as soon as he sat down and preoccupied his hands with a Rubik's Cube.

As the sides of the 5x5x5 Professor's Cube fell inexorably into place, he continued to think about what he could do or discover or invent. Anything that would stop these foreign feelings from invading on his daily life.

He went from idea to idea. From the plausible to the ultimately insane. But nothing seemed likely to help, not even in the slightest.

Abandoning his ideas of things that could help, he pondered the changes to his Spirit Plane that he had witnessed.

_If a Spirit Plane can change... Why can't--_ He stopped thinking as he felt Yoruichi's unmistakable pressure enter the Karakura township. He dropped the puzzle mid turn and quickly ran out of the shop. He coulnd't pull into a flash step and he quickly felt the Shihon Princess becoming frightened at the lack of Urahara's rietsu.

He ran full speed to where she was standing. The place they always met when she got asigned to the real world.

Masaki Kurosaki's grave.

"Ki-Kisuke?" Yoruichi was shocked and didn't know what to think. He was standing right there in front of her but she could neither sense him nor hear the dull keening of Benihime.

Had he stumbled on a way to completely mask his reiatsu? And if yes, why hadn't he told her about it. And why did he look out of breath? It wasn't that far from his shop to the grave sight. _What's going on here?_ she couldn't help but be suspicious.

"Just.... a..... minute." He held up a hand to try to quell her growing unease. A couple of seconds later he stood up, looked into the pale gold orbs that were his love's eyes and began recounting the events of the past day.

* * *

He finished with Ichigo's visit as they reached his shop and waited for her look of shock and confusion, which had been becoming more and more definite as his story drove on towards it's not so happy ending, to grow into a more understanding, hopeful one.

"But... How is this even possible? Your soul is _you_ how can it just leave?" Yoruichi had been taking this side of the conversation the entire walk home. During the story she had kept interrupting and each time Kisuke recalled the names Benihime had called her she shuddered and let out a small gasp of hurt.

"I don't know, but I was thinking before you got here and I think I mightbe on to something. Why are you here by the way?" Kisuke looked up at her and quickly added, "Not that I'm complaining."

"I was assigned to a human world liason squad and was stationed here." Shihoin had completely ignored the added comment made by Kisuke. She knew that he was glad to see her and that he was going through more than his fair share of hardships, "What were you thinking?"

"Well, when I first immersed myself into Benihime's song and got to my Spirit Plane I noticed two things, I left the first out of the story for my own reasons." Kisuke was absorbed in the telling of this new developement that he didn't noticed Yoruichi shift into the blackcat and curl up on his lap until she was there and he was petting her and scratching her behind the ears, "Anyway, I noticed the change in decor as i have already told you but I noticed something else that both deeply disturbed and greatly intrigued me. Her reiatsu had changed. She wasn't Benihime anymore! I don't exactly know what changed or when it did but I've been thinking. If my Spirit World can change and the very essence of my soul can be altered, maybe, just maybe, I have unlocked a tier of power formerly unknown to the Shinigami! If I can figure out the cataly-- Ouch!"

Kisuke was interrupted when Yoruichi dug her claws abruptly into his leg, effectively derailing his train of thought. She sauntered off and came back into the room, naked and human once again. Kisuke handed her a kimono as she started to talk, "Kisuke, my love, have you learned nothing from these long years of exile? What has gone through your head these past few days will be incomparable to the definite andall to real torture that you will recieve at the hands of Yamamoto-dono if he finds out what you have planned. Please, I beg you from all that there is in me, do not let this get away from you." Yoruichi had taken on a somber look and, though the kimono was still in her hands and she still very much naked, Urahara had no difficulty with looking his Princess in the eyes, "I will not stop you but nor will I help you in this. I will be here for you if you fail but I will offer congratulations if, and only if, you succeed without the loss of life."

Kisuke looked away in shame and anger. He had thought that of all people Yoruichi, his Princess, would stand by him and push him ever onward in his pursuit of the unattainable. Was he wrong? Or was she just using this as a test to see if he really wouldhave need of her? He decided upon the latter and responded, "Though you will not stand by me I will assure you, Princess, that the only loss of life will be the life of the memories of Benihime."

"You silly boy, did you honestly think that i would abandon you when things got dangerous? Have you forgotten the price you almost had to pay to obtain your Bankai?" Yourichi's impish smile was almost enough to dispel the shiver that ran down his spine at the closeness of her words and those that had been spoken by his sould the previous night. But he quickly forgot the memory and was shoved back to reality when Shihoin started speaking again, "Besides, how could i be your furry little trouble-maker if i let you have all the fun?"

The implications of this statement sent another shiver down Kisuke's spine, but this time it had nothing to do with eerie coincidences, but everything to do with his loves still naked form before him.

"I thought you'd see it my way." Kisuke surprised himself with this but astonishment did nothing to keep the smile from dancing playfully around his mouth as his 'furry little trouble-maker' pounced on him and suffocated any other thoughts of conversation with her lips.


	5. Not Beaten, Only Stronger

They passed the rest of the day in each others arms, ending the embrace only for minutes to flip the "OPEN" sign to "CLOSED" after the first customer came in unexpectedly, almost catching them in the act.

Those hours were the best Kisuke had seen in a long time. He had been overjoyed at the prospect of his Princess, now his _only_ princess, being assigned to a liason squad and her being stationed here was an extra added bonus.

"Kisuke?" Yoruichi had her head down on his chest and was looking up at him, her eyes filled with love, fear, and the unmistakable sheen of tears. "What's going to happen now?"

He tilted his head down and put his hands behind it, "What do you mean?" He was genuinely confused.

The golden-eyed princess sat up and turned her exposed back to him, "What happens now? I mean... your not... You anymore. W-what are we going to d-do?"

Her voice broke on the last sentence and Kisuke realized that she was scared of what was going to happen to him when a Hollow attacked. Scared of what was going to happen if he didn't succeed in everything that was _completly_ theoretical.

Kisuke sat up and turned her around. He instantly saw the tear streaking, untamed, down her face; her misty, golden eyes shimmering wildly in the light of the setting sun and her shoulders bobbing up and down with suppressed sobs.

"When have I ever let you down? You are my Princess, my life, my everything. You have always been able to trust me. Now is no different. I _will_ succeed and I _will_ beat this. If nothing else, I can, and do, promise you that I, that **we** will beat this." Kisuke believed those words and he knew how big of a risk he was taking in making this promise. If he failed in this he would never be able to forgive himself. But, with him, failure was never an option.

"O-ok." Yoruichi still had the fear in her eyes but it had abated some. "I love you..."

Those three words had collapsed empires, risen others from the ashes of the past. They had the power to make the smallest and most timid of men into anything they could dream of, but, at the same time, could also bring the biggest and strongest of men break down a weep like babies. But, to Kisuke, it struck him dumb and put a grin on his face.

It wasn't often that Yoruichi said it. She reserved her more intimate feelings for the times when they were most welcome. Times like this, when everything could be portrayed with those three, simple words.

"I love you too..." Tears welling in Kisuke's eyes at this point. He leaned in and kissed her softly, pulling back but placing a hand on the back of her neck, effectively drawing her back into the position this entire exchange had started. Her head laying on his chest with his hand running through her hair, both absorbed with the others problems.

* * *

The sun peaked out from behind the distand hills and shed light on the two sleeping forms in one Urakara's many back rooms.

Kisuke lay on his side with an arm draped over the sprawled form of Yoruichi. The latter looked lifeless and, if not for the even rise a fall of her bare chest, could have been mistaken for dead.

She was the first to stir and, as the golden beams of sunlight draped her in their light and warmed her skin, she looked up at the still sleeping skin of her lover.

He was Laying under her with a hand around her shoulders, a mute attempt at keeping her close, and his shaggy blonde hair was, for once, relieved of the green and white het he insisted on wearing all the time.

Though his eyes were closed he was very much awake and aware of her scrutiny. "Do I have something on my face Love?"

He felt her jump a little bit and silently congratulated himself on his act.

"Not unless you're talking about your smugness Kisuke." She saw his face screw up for a minute and then, in the time it took her to blink, it was back to it's nearly expressionless self again. She frowned slightly, reached up, put a finger on either side of his mouth and lifted gently, framing his mouth with a fake smile.

Kisuke shook his head and opened his eyes for the first time that morning since Yoruichi had woken up. Before, when she was still sleeping, Kisuke had been awake and thinking about the journey he and his Princess were going to embark on. It was daunting, frightening, and oddly it seemed to call to him with a note of longing, like it was something that had been predestined. But, knowing what it was like to die and knowing that there was no tunnel with a "god" at the end, he brushed it off as eagerness.

He looked down at the person h had spent so much of his afterlife with and wondered when he couldn't have met her when he was actually alive. _What would it have been like, not having to do so much world saving? We could have lived, grown old, and then died together, living a normal life... But I guess we wouldn't know each other._

Kisuke lost himself in his thoughts again and his Shihoin Princess looked on sadly as he stared unknowingly at the almost pristine room. She moved to get up but Kisuke grabbed her arm and pulled her back, "Where might you be going my sweet? I wasn't quite finished with you yet." The gleam in his eyes was unmistakable and, as he pulled her closer, Yoruichi's pulse sped up again.

* * *

It was a quarter to eleven before they managed to pull themselves away from the other.

Kisuke was in one of his back rooms when Ichigo came bursting in, a mutilated body, almost unrecognizable, clutched to his chest and tears streaming down his face, "Y-you gotta' help h-her..." Ichigo barely managed to choke this sentence out.

Kisuke got up, an exterior clamness dractically clashing with the panic he felt inside, and took the batter Rukia from Ichigo. He put her down on a table and told Ichigo to wait outside. He quickly sent out a reiatsu pulse to call Yoruichi to him. She came running because of the urgency of it, "Yoruichi, I need you to stop the bleeding and keep her hanging on until I get back. Do _not_ let her die."

With that Kisuke was gone in a heartbeat, leaving Yoruichi no time to ask him questions.

* * *

Kisuke was running across a street almost to the Kurosaki Health Clinic when he ran into Ishin Kurosaki, the person he had been frantically trying to find, "I-Ishin, you need to find Orihime and bring her to my shop." Kisuke was bent over trying to catch his breath but when he looked up at his childhood friend and saw him still standing there his mouth open with him about to say some thing Kisuke cut him off, "Quickly, a life hangs in the balance and we don't have time for anything other then action. Go!"

Ishin disappeared at these words and Kisuke turned around and sprinted back the way he had come, hoping desperately that Yoruichi had listened to him and hadn't wasted any time. _Damn this situation! Why couldn't this have happened two days ago or waited 'till i at least had something back, enough to flash-step at least. Damn it!_

This train of thought lasted until he got back to the shop and saw Ichigo waiting outside, the look of horror he had had on his face when he had brought Rukia in had abated but his brown eyes were the tell that he was still worried for Rukia and scared that she wouldn't pull through this time.

"Ichigo, what happened?" Kisuke had approached the orange haired substitute soul reaper and sat down next to him, "Those were not from a Hollow were they?"

Ichigo instantly looked away, afraid of what might be in the eyes of the man who had taught him so much, the man who had given him access to the power that had saved so many people countless times, "I.... We were sparring.... And I... I lost control and _he_ hurt her...."

Kisuke looked at the young man and wondered why someone so innocent had been put through as much as Ichigo had. Kisuke wondered to himself, _When will he learn that chaos cannot be controlled? Will he ever have enough control over what he is to live a semi-normal life?_

"Ichigo, you need to realize that you will never have full control over your hollow, it will never be mastered and you will need to relinquish control at times. But know this, though you cannot master Him, he cannot master You either, not unless you let him." Kisuke looked into the soft brown eyes that had recently been upturned to meet his gaze, "You are to strong, to inherently good, for Him to take you. What you need is not more power like you think Ichigo, but more focus. The more you narrow the scope of your power, the bigger of a force to be reckoned you will be. Remember, tactics, not power, win wars." Kisuke grinned inwardly as the once soft brown eyes took on a deadly and focused gleam.

"Thank you Kisuke, I will go now. Call me when Rukia wakes up?" The note of fear krept into his voice again but was quickly banished.

"Most definitely. Now, off you go, we need to work. Shoo!" Kisuke then turned and walked through the front door of his shop, leaving a slightly stronger Ichigo to flash-step back to his home.


	6. Dreams, What do they mean?

Mists formed in the dreams of Kisuke Urahara and he frantically tried to right himseelf as the ground dissapeared beneath him and he fell down into the writhing mists that were his dreams.

* * *

He righted himself and was surprised to see that he was in the forests of Soul Society. The small clearing was densely populated with most of the people he held close to himself or in high esteem. _What the hell is going on here_ he thought to himself as he looked upon the faces of those that were in attendance. _Holy shit it's **me.**_ This thought lasted about a second as Kisuke heard laughter, high and shrill.

The shrill ring of laughter, that was unbelievebly his own, rang through the still air as he saw himself stare down the orange-haired opponent that was opposite his dream self.

"**You honestly think you can handle the full might of ****Shindatsuki?**" Kisuke's eyes held an unmistakable yellowish tint but no discernible mask presented itself, "**Well let me tell you a little secret. Shindatsuki is unlike any other zanpakuto you have encountered. He has a "Phrase Bankai". Unfamiliar? Well what it means is that when I want to unleash my Bankai, for any reason, I need to tell him what to do, When this happens...**" Kisuke subjected those in attendence to this spectacle to his eerie laughter once again, "**When this happens, his intelligence, and that of my own, are forced into the sword. Do you know what _that_ means? No? Well it means that the second release is twenty times more powerful then that of an ordinary release bankai. There have only been three phrase bankai in history and you will only see a fraction of its power.**"

Kisuke's words had a profound effect Ichigo and he couldn't help but be afraid. Kisuke had been powerful with Benihime, who knows what new tier of power Urahara had unlocked with his new sword.

"Kisuke? What the hell?!" Ichigo was more then slightly disturbed by this exiled shinigami's calm.

"**Curious? Well just watch. I will not dissapoint you.**" With this Kisuke raised his sword into the air, parallel with the ground and spoke in a much clearer and calmer voice,

"Shindatsuki, kurushimemasu kimi no teki, Bankai!" (Shindatsuki, distress your enemy, bankai)

Kisuke threw his sword over his shoulder into the newly created shadow the now uneclipsed sun had given him. But, instead of clattering to the ground, the Chinese broad sword fell point-down into the shadow and melted into the ground.

As soon as the light blue tassle completely dissapeared, however, ever shadow in the forest glade shattered and dispersed, leaving the clearing unnaturally bright.

"Is it just me or was that rather anti-climatic?" Said Ichigo, his outward calm almost completely undisturbed, but for a single twitch in his eye.

"Silly, silly boy. Did you honestly think I would dispatch you so quickly? I at least need to let you know what has happened. You see, Shindatsuki is much like Senbosakura. As I'm sure you remember from your first escapade into the Soul Society. Except, unlike that particular release, I don't shatter a sword, I shatter the very shadow every light must make an object cast. So, as long as there is light, there is really no stopping me." As Kisuke had been speaking, he had been sinking slowly deeper into the shadows that were now coalesing around him, "Shindatsuki? Show yourself."

The shadows collapsed upon themselves and formed into a human shape that took on the qualities of a tall, darkskinned man in a flowing robe. "**You beckoned?**" His voice was deep and resounded within everyone that was gathered.

"I did, I need you to show Kurosaki here how much damage a properly controlled bankai can do."

"**As you have commanded, so shall I teach.**" The shadow-man melted into the air and the now indistinct shadow fell apart into billions upon billions of small black flakes.

As Kurosaki took in everything around him Kisuke raised a hand and the writhing beast that was his _Disturbance _shot forward and encircled Ichigo. Kisuke slowly closed his open hand and the dome of seemingly transparent darkness shrank as his hand closed inch by deadly inch.

Ichigo was genuinely afraid now and could think of no way to get out. His previous attempts at flash-stepping out had served only as a means of getting himself cut up more then he already was.

"Kisuke! What the hell are you doing?! You couldn't have gone through all that training with me just to snuff me out like this!" Ichigo was grasping at the few straws he had left.

Kisuke smiled at the frantic look that had appeared on Ichigo's normally determined and fearless face, "It was nothing more then a thing to pass the time Kurosaki. Nothing but an enjoyable passtime.

"But... But... What the hell brought this out?" Ichigo used the lapse in Kisuke's attention to attempt another go with the hightened speed of his Hollow mask enhanced bankai but was again thwarted with a simple spasm of Urahara's hand.

"You see Ichigo, it's moves like that that make it really hard to trust you.** Now perish**!" With those words Kisuke closed his hand and the crazily high spirit pressence that was Ichigo Kurosaki, Substitute Shinigami and freind of Soul Society was no more.

Kisuke had watched all of these proceedings in abject horror and couldn't blieve his eyes as he saw his dream-self snuff out the orange haird kid he had helped out no more then two weeks ago. He continued to watch as the Dream Kisuke released the shadow dome and let the dead Ishigo crumple to to ground. He then turned his yellow eyes to the purple haired Shihoin Princess that had been his lover and childhood friend, "**Now it's your turn my sweet.**" He licked his lips and raised his hand, pointing a finger towards her.

It was all Kisuke could do to keep from throwing himself in front of the on coming barrage of shadow that was headed straight for his Princess. 

_It's just a dream, It's just a dream._

He kept telling himself this as he watched the love of his life wiped out along with everyone else in the forest glade. As soon as the Dream Kisuke had killed Renji, he turned his now grey eyes towards the matching pair that had watched his every deed in growing revulsion and horror. "**Now for you...**"

Kisuke couldn't believe it, he was going to attack himself? But that didn't make any sense. But, then again, this entire dream didn't make any sense.

Kisuke did the only thing he could think of, he turned and ran, trying to dodge the everpresent shadows and get out into the light. But his attempted escape proved futile and, as he rounded a corner, was face to face with himself again, "**Good bye master.**" The dream Kisuke raised his now-black hand and the shadows instantly converged on the real Kisuke.

His last thought before the blackness was complete was _Master...?_

* * *

Kisuke woke up in a cold sweat, feeling around instantly for his Princess and, upon laying his hand on her warm, moving chest laid back down and pondered the meaning of this dream.

"Master... He called me '_master_'," He whispered to himself as the darkness of sleep began to creep up on him, "What does it mean?"

This was the last thought he had before drifting of to happier dreams of happier time with Yoruichi.


	7. Coma

The morning light woke Urahara up with nothing but a slightly uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach that he couldn't explain. After a moment of laying in the warm light of the early morning sun, the dream came back, more vivid and real than it had been while he was having it. The absence of the Shihōin Princess next to him only fueled his panic ridden thoughts.

He leaped out of bed and crossed the room to the open door. The sizzling and popping of cooking bacon reached his ears about the same time as the wonderful smell reached his nose. These familiar sensations calmed his hysteria, but the dream still nagged at his thoughts, "What does it mean?" he asked out loud to no one in particular.

"Probably something almost as important as this breakfast." Yoruichi's reply startled him, almost as much as her outfit did, as as she rounded the corner with a plate piled high with pancakes, scrambled eggs and steaming bacon, the entire thing coated in strawberry syrup, his favorite.

"I'm not sure, but the breakfast looks almost as amazing as you do," Kisuke wasn't lying either, the Shihōin Princess was looking far more splendid than usual.

Her normal outfit had been replaced with a frilly white blouse and matching pale blue mini skirt. A "Kiss the Cook" apron covered her front but the sides of the skirt only came down to mid thigh as far as Kisuke could see. The customary soft soled shoes of the Second Division had been replaced with knee high, black leather boots.

"What's the occasion? Are we going out?" His eyes never stopped appraising the outfit that was entirely out of character for her.

"As a matter of fact we are. You're taking me out. I don't care where. But you're getting out of this place today. You've been doing way to much thinking, you need to clear your mind and this seems the best way to do that." She turned and began walking back down the hallway, confirming Kisuke's previous assumption of the startlingly short skirt. Only down to mid thigh.

He followed her into the dining room/kitchen area and sat down behind the plate of food and began to eat, pausing only for air and to look over to the counter, where Yoruichi was cleaning up, to stare.

He finished quickly and walked over to the sink where his lover was busy washing the dishes, "Thanks for breakfast. Now come on, I know what we're going to do today." He pulled her away from the sink full of dirty dishes and soapy water and rushed her towards the door.

"Uhm, Kisuke? Do you want to get dressed first?" The suppressed humor in the question leaked out into a very school girl-like giggle.

"What's gotten into you today? First the clothes and now giggling? Either I'm still sleeping of you're not feeling well." Kisuke shook his head and walked back down the hallway to get dressed for the day.

As soon as Kisuke disappeared into the room, Yoruichi whispered, "Maybe it's a little of both." With that parting thought, she melted into the floor, dissolving into shadows and mist.

Kisuke, having rushed off straight to his closet to look for something to wear, missed the entire scene and only noticed the disappearance of his lover by the lack of her reiatsu.

"Yoru?!" He called out, fearing something had happened, he grabbed his cane before he realized that his Hime had left him. Exasperated, he threw the cane away and reached deep inside himself, grasping at the swirling mass of power that fueled his soul.

He tried to grab the power but it eluded him, slipping through his fingers as he tried to grasp it. It was there, he could feel it, but he couldn't harness it, he couldn't bend it to his will. He cursed and grabbed the cane again. If nothing else he wouldn't go out unarmed.

Holding the cane in both hands, he crept out of the room. Plans for the day completely gone from his mind, he could think of nothing other than what was going on.

He crossed the hall in few steps but was caught completely off guard when he rounded the corner into what was supposed to be his kitchen.

The hallway was as it was supposed to be, but once Kisuke had turned the corner his surroundings had ceased to fit. The wood paneled, distinctly western style kitchen that he had so recently eaten a breakfast in had morphed into a lab. One Kisuke remembered clearly as being located in the Seireitei.

His new surroundings triggered memories in him as he looked around. He saw the dummy that he had developed in order to gain his Bankai. He saw sheaves of paper strewn about carelessly, a slight order to the tossing if you looked close enough.

The computer screens around him flickered to life as Kisuke looked around, showing him something that completely surprised him.

The face that looked out from the screens wasn't the painted one of Kurotsuchi Mayuri, as he half expected. And it wasn't Yoruichi's like he half feared. The pale gray eyes looking out from all around him were set into the face of a younger Urahara.

The blond tousled hair that hung if front of the pale gray eyes swung from side to side with the suppressed laughter of his past self.

Kisuke took a step back into a wall that hadn't been behind him a second ago and looked up in astonishment as his voice, slightly higher but still his, came from the monitors, "So, you've finally come. It took you long enough. Do you like what I've done with the place?" The voice carried malice and hate and the younger Kisuke used it like a whip, lashing out with every words as if trying to cut his older self physically.

"Where _am_ I? It looks like my old lab but obviously it's not, I was just in the World of the Living." These words kicked his mind into overdrive as he tried to figure out what was happening. Some of the panic returned as he remember Yoruichi's disappearance. "What have you done with Yoru!?" The question escaped before Kisuke could stop it.

"She was never really there. You still haven't recovered from your coma." The monitor said, "So, to answer your question, I've done nothing with her." The blond hair swayed again as the body it was connected to shook with silent mirth.

"Coma?" Kisuke whispered, "There was no accident to _cause_ a coma. Liar!" Kisuke was in full panic mode now. He couldn't remember a coma, but isn't that normal? Coma victims aren't usually aware they're in comas. Are they?

The Kisuke in the monitor shook its head again and chuckled aloud this time. "I can see where your train of thought is leading, and you're right, there was no accident. But there is a coma. Truth is, without Benihime, your soul has shut down. You can't wake up until you fix what's broken."

The previously malicious voice was now heavy with remorse and grief. Kisuke mourned Benihime's departure more than he had let on, even to himself.

"How am I supposed to do that?" Kisuke asked the monitor, "I didn't even know that Hime _could_ leave. How am I supposed to get her back?" The question hung in the air for a moment before the answer came.

The door at the other end of the room slid open and a seething, living blackness seemed to roll in, followed by a blond-haired , yellow eyed man dressed in a black suit. Kisuke looked over at the new arrival and was shocked to see himself again. This time his dream self.

This didn't exactly shock the original Kisuke as much as the monitor version of himself had. He had by now guessed that he was in his spirit realm, though how he could do that without a soul cutter was beyond him (he had tried countless times after Benihime's departure).

:The shrill laughter from Kisuke's dream self echoed across the lab and shook Urahara from his thoughts, "You should be asking someone who can help you, not him" The yellow-eyed Kisuke nodded in the direction of one of the monitors, "And in answer to your thoughts, you do have a soul cutter, I just haven't manifested." A grin crept across the Dream's face as he drew a Chinese broadsword from the darkness around him.

"What do you mean? A soul only has _one_ Zanpaktou. One soul, one sword." Urahara was more confused now than he had been in his entire life an he didn't like it one bit.

"Interesting thought. Wrong. But interesting nonetheless." The Dream's grin didn't even falter when he spoke again, "If you ever want to get out of here and see your precious Princess again, you'll need to pry this sword from my hands and its name from his lips."

"And you expect me to do this weaponless?" Urahara's calm was back, he'd done this before. It was nothing new.

"Nothing but your knowledge of yourself and how you fight. That and your mind of course." The shrill laughter was back as the Dream launched itself at the Original.


End file.
